


In All Things Dark and Vast

by Filomena



Category: Dead Poets Society (1989)
Genre: M/M, sleeping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-23 16:55:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16163033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Filomena/pseuds/Filomena
Summary: The night strips everyone bare. Todd basks in its magnificence.





	In All Things Dark and Vast

Neil touches the outline of the other boy, all tense and stiff, his brows furrowed. 

"You're so wound up," he says. 

Todd sucks in a breath. It's late at night, so late that everything yearns to absorb light. He can feel himself turning into a black body, itching for heat to illuminate his surroundings. Each of his cells vibrate as Neil runs his hands over the sinews in his hands, his veins popping over the layered muscle.

"I–" and there's the damned stutter that plagues Todd, and he so wishes he could cut that part out of him like a gangrenous leg, "I've always been like this."

Neil looks at him. Todd can't feel his face, but he can sense the sadness radiating off of him in waves.

There's a pause. Neil opens his mouth, unclamping him lips from one another, sighing. "You weren't like this once. I know it." 

Todd shifts over in his bed, staring at Neil and his dark blob of a physique. He rests his weight on his elbows, and Neil draws his hand away slowly. "I was always like this,” he replies. “It's a damn sickness.”

Neil turns his head in surprise, perhaps at Todd's uncharacteristic swearing. "Well," he reasons, "if it's a sickness, it can be cured." He crosses his arms, leaning back to stare at the chasm of a ceiling.

Todd doesn't say anything. Time seems to be spread out like dripping, hardening chocolate, and the pauses between his replies stretch time as he knows it. "What are you looking at?" He asks, seeing the darkened boy crane his neck. 

"The universe."

"But there's nothing. There's no stars or planets or anything," Todd states in mild disbelief.

He can feel Neil smile. "It's the possibilities, Todd. In darkness, there are always possibilities."

"But the universe?" Todd looks up now. His eyes are consumed by a blackness he can only describe as feral, like Neil's eyes, but more untamed and strange.

"That's the universe, if you think about it. Just empty space." 

Todd looks over at Neil, whose body stands so solid amongst this crushing universe, and whose eyes glitter like garnets on a foil. 

Suddenly, he's overcome with an urge to touch him, to trace his hands over the face of a young god, to write poetry into his skin. His arms lifts up without him thinking, even though everything he does is with extreme discretion, to rest on Neil's forearm.

Neil looks down in surprise, giving a breathy laugh. “What are you doing?”

Todd stills. What’s he supposed to say? He can’t just spill his stupid thoughts out into the open. 

“I...I don’t know.” There. Good enough.

Neil licks his lips, keeping his arm steady, his white teeth reflecting the moonlight coming from the window. “God, Todd, what am I going to do with you?” He asks. He knows that the question will bounce off the walls into nothingness, but a boy can dream.

Todd loops his arms through Neil’s, staring into the ceiling until it burns his eyes. “I don’t know, Neil,” he says, closing them. “I don’t know.” 

He gives into the pulling darkness of sleep. Before he leaves the faint realm of reality, he swears he can feel Neil stroking his hair.

**Author's Note:**

> woo!! second fic on this website, hell yeah!!
> 
> I wanna give a huge thanks to @jay_somnia(she writes good shit on here, checks it out man) for motivating me and stuff. I’m way too embarrassed to tell her this face to face, but if you read this, thanks man. I haven’t written short stories in years.
> 
> as usual, follow me on wattpad @keloidal. I keep all of my original work and poetry on there.


End file.
